(This photograph is of Fred & Margaret Buller, and was taken at Fred J. Taylor's MBE Award Ceremony at the Judges' Lodgings, Aylesbury, Berkshire in February, 2008)

There's something of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot about Fred Buller, and more than a smidgeon of Colin Dexter's enigmatic character, Morse. I say that because Buller is an indefatigable detective; an historian, unrivalled in the world of angling. The result of his investigative mind are landmark books such as The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike, (Stanley Paul, 1979), and latterly, The Domesday Book of Giant Salmon, (Constable & Robinson, 2007) the first 5,500 print-run of which sold out in the UK within a matter of weeks. An updated reprint was published in September, 2008 by Constable & Robinson.  1300 copies were for the UK market, with an additional 3200 copies being produced in Singapore by Firefly Books (US) Inc.  The edition destined for the American and Canadian markets has a different dust-wrapper, and change of title to: Giant Salmon, a record of the largest Atlantic Salmon.  The reprint contains corrections of the first edition, together with details of four more salmon records, which have been brought to Buller's attention since the first edition was published.

Each of his meticulously documented books is the cornerstone of research for anyone with the remotest interest in the stories of monster fish, which might otherwise have eluded modern anglers; but how did Buller, as he prefers to be referred to, develop such a fascination for the intricate detail which fuels his quest for the factual data that is curiously so often obscure.

Frederick Henry Ernest Buller was born in London on the 12th October, 1926, and at the age of four, he and his parents moved from London to Kingsbury.  As a young boy, his earliest memories of fishing are on the small pond near to his new home in the country, where he fished with a net for newts.  In Recollections, recorded in November 2006, with his old friend Fred J. Taylor, MBE, who sadly died on 7th May, 2008 aged 89 - Buller recalls that he caught gudgeon and sticklebacks in a net from the River Brent, before changing to fishing with a two-piece Chinese cane rod.  That rod came in a pack with float, line, hooks and shot, at a cost of around 1s.11d. (just under ten pence in modern currency!)

Buller was Grammar School educated, and although, in his words: 'I did not excel in any particular subject,' in the third form, he became top of the class.  According to Buller, he did this to impress his form master who believed him to have hidden talents - doubtless because Buller, the school chess champion, was able to beat him (a retired Oxford Don) when they played!  Given that his best subjects were Biology and Natural History, it is unsurprising that his first job was working for the Freshwater Biological Association on Windermere in the Lake District, where he enjoyed working under its inspired Director, Dr. E. B. Worthington.  It was whilst gill netting pike and trapping perch on a large scale, for ecological experimentation, that Buller became particularly interested in big pike.  When in 2006, the Recollections' recording came to an end after several very enjoyable hours, his enthusiasm for that species of fish is very clear - especially in the knowledge that it was undoubtedly the first species of fish that our ancestors caught on gorge baits: indeed, the connection with human beings goes back 40,000 years.

There is an undisputed and unfaltering exactitude in Buller's work and resultant books, which are sure to provide interest down the years for readers and researchers alike, but when asked by Keith Elliott, editor of Classic Angling magazine, what he felt was his most significant book, Buller replied - Dame Juliana, the Treatyse and its Mysteries.

To find out why, simply listen to Recollections (due for publication as a special edition by River Reads on the 9th February, 2009)  - a sound-clip from which is attached.  I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed making this fascinating recording of angling oral history.



Sandra Armishaw
July, 2008

PS  Fred Buller was awarded an MBE for services to angling in the New Years Honours list published on 1st January 2010

NB: Buller's splendid 32lbs.' pike caught from the River Aille in Country Mayo, Ireland, in October 1977, is on display at River Reads, together with Fred J. Taylor's pike of 28lbs.4ozs. caught from Wilstone Reservoir, England, on 29th January, 1969.
 
The special edition of the Recollections of Fred J. Taylor, MBE and Fred Buller is fully reserved but a waiting list is being compiled.  email: siariverreads@aol.com if you wish to add your name.